Books with good romance subplots tv#
Flick around prime-time TV some evening and you’ll spot several of them. Just as there are archetypal characters and tales, there are archetypal ships. Threads of romance add dimension, interest, and character, but the basic story structure remains independent.
If the chemistry between two of the protagonists dissolved, we’d still have the journey of three young adults fighting for survival and justice in an environmentally ravaged world. Compare that to my debut novel Blue Karma. Does it still function as a narrative? Remove the central relationship from any Harlequin paperback and there’s not much left. Imagine the story without the relationship. There’s an easy way to determine which category a book represents. As Oscar Wilde observes in The Importance of Being Earnest, “the very essence of romance is uncertainty.”
This tantalizing question of “will they or won’t they?” is the magic ingredient that makes ships so compelling for readers and writers alike. Like a flirtatious lover, romantic subplots tease but guarantee nothing. Because they function as a secondary thread to the core narrative, the characters don’t have to get together for the story to resolve. Readers never suffer any real doubt that the characters will get together. The protagonist’s primary arc concerns the development and ultimate attainment of a relationship: a love quest. In a dedicated romance novel, the love story is the plot.
Romance + Novel ≠ Romance Novelįirst, let’s establish the difference between subplot ships and romance novels. In this inaugural installment, we’ll identify the three fundamental relationship constructs and how they fit into the broader scope of a story.
Books with good romance subplots series#
My fascination evolved into an accidental study of the twists, turns, and heartbreaks that characterize good romantic subplots in fiction. So I’m launching a new post series on “Shipping and Handling”: the craft of romantic subplots in fiction. Since childhood, I’ve endured tedious book series and shark-jumping television shows just to see whether two characters finally get together. Meaning she knows I’m a total sucker for a good ship. “So are Ash and Skye going to get together or what?” my mom demanded after reading the latest installment of my Syzygy series.
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